New Year, New Contest – Enter the CityCamp Challenge

Fresh off the heels of the AwesomeGov launch in which GovLoop gave $1,789 to Adventures for the Cure, we’ve teamed up with Code for America to ensure that 4 top innovators can attend CityCamp on January 23-24, 2010.

In this current economic climate, several cities are strapped for resources. And yet they’re finding creative ways to do more with less, to innovate and provide even better services for citizens.

As a result of their limited resources, many may not be able to attend an event like CityCamp…but we think they’re exactly the kind of people that ought to be there.

That’s why we’ve donated $1,000 to Code for America – to defray the cost of participation. Combined with $1,000 from other sponsors, we will provide $500 scholarships for four (4) municipal employees. Here’s how it will work:

1. From January 4 – 8, we’ll open up for voting at govloop.uservoice.com, this time to allow you to SUBMIT and VOTE on the top municipal innovative projects across the United States.

2. Top 4 people with most votes will each receive up to $500 to support airfare and hotel at the event.

3. Eligible candidates will be current public servants employed by a municipality in the United States. Innovation does not need to be social media only. It can include a wide array of creative projects in the fields of human resources, financial management, transportation, information technology, contracting/procurement, education and more.

4. We’ll feature each of these innovators as Members of the Week leading up to the event.

What about true innovators out of the United States… We would like to share our experiences with and learn from our counterparts from the rest of the World. However, I think this is an awesome idea!
James